


Ties of Fate

by idolatres



Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Writing Exercise, is platonic, warming back up after my vacation!!, wrt relationship its not shippy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-01
Updated: 2018-01-01
Packaged: 2019-02-26 06:31:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13229988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idolatres/pseuds/idolatres
Summary: It's not hatred Karna feels for Arjuna, it's something more complicated.





	Ties of Fate

    Nonsensical knots around a makeshift heart, barely held together, coming loose at the seams, the heart crumpling under the weight of it all. Suffocating as the hand of fate ties more, stoppers, bowlines, squares, clove hitches, anything to try and make things work, to achieve a happy ending. But there is no such thing as a happy end for all.  
  
  
  
    It's not hatred Karna feels for Arjuna, it's complicated.  
  
  
  
    He plays the role of a heretic with grace and guile, like it's the most natural thing in the world. Humans are his equals, but he lacks the capacity to understand their emotions. Spending your life with them though, causes their mannerisms and habits to bleed out, soaking it all in, acting like them. Not in the ways you expect, but in small unnoticeable ways. When he's confused about the heaviness he feels in his chest, when his soul feels like it's burning, to the point where his skin will surely char and turn to crisps, that is the effect humans have had on him.  
  
  
  
    So when he first feels the twang of an indescribable jumble of needles pricking at his skin, making small incisions only to dig back in, deeper than the last, he assumes he's ill. But when the feeling gets more intense, as he locks eyes with the princes, his gaze penetrating Arjuna's own look, the needles practically embed into him, making his body rigid with discomfort, he realizes he's not ill, but this is an emotion. What emotion, he can't decipher, or even begin to understand.  
  
  
  
    It's not hatred he feels for Arjuna, but something he's not familiar with in the least.  
  
  
  
    Every time they have a contest of wills, Karna finds himself smiling. Arjuna is a fierce, proud warrior. Someone worthy of him to use his full strength against, someone worthy to go all out with. The needles in his skin burn, setting his soul ablaze as he uses the light of the sun itself against him. It's never enough, he finds. Always cut short, always interrupted, the feeling of emptiness in his heart amplified the longer he stays in this world.  
  
  
  
    When his birth mother approaches him, he finally learns what it all means. He's prepared for this his whole life, prepared to meet his own demise, and who better to be his doom than someone as mighty as he. Someone born into a status of greatness, like he should of been, but that was not how fate played out, and there is no point grieving over it. It's how it should be. It will bring glory to the princes, it will bring glory to the kingdom, while he burns out in a blaze of disaster. He prefers it this way, he prefers to stay gone, as he surely doesn't belong in this world.  
  
  
  
    He doesn't hate Arjuna, far from it. It's painful, harsh on his heart, his lungs filling up with ash as he burns himself out. Perhaps it's envy, a sickly jealousy that could eat him up whole. Distaste at how they can be so different, yet so much alike. Beneath it all though, no matter how confusion tries to cloud his judgement, he's filled with pride for the prince. Proud that he could meet someone who challenges him on so many levels.  
  
  
  
    As Karna's armor is stripped from him, as he feels the weight of mortality loom on his shoulders, heavy and harsh. He still doesn't fear death, he fears not falling in battle, he fears not leaving everyone he's met in this life, what he fears is something less primal, more agitating than anything. The idea that his rivalry with the prince will come to an end, that he will never strike blows against him that cause the both of them to shudder with frustration and grief. Never to look into his eyes and see the guilt and raw anger seep through, staining his amicable features. To cause him such pain, to find such a worthy enemy. The idea of this coming to an end, makes his heart tug and squeeze in a vice grip.  
  
  
  
  
    "An arrow just for you", the words drip with venom, and all Karna can see in his glare is hatred. He knows better though, knows that Arjuna doesn't truly hate him. It's their fate he despises. As it's not their fault this has to pass, but the hands of fate themselves, eager to make legends that others can look to as centuries, eons pass. What's to come of them now matters not to the people of the future. He accepts this, as bitter of a pill it is to swallow, he accepts.  
  
  
  
    He doesn't rise from the ashes like a phoenix, he returns to where he belongs, obscenely bright, hues of orange and yellow blinding him, his father there, but he can't read his face. Can't tell if he made him proud or not, but it doesn't matter. He wonders if anyone will remember him from his time, he doubt anyone will weep over him. Arjuna will remember though, Arjuna will remember for as long as he lives, beyond that as well. Where ever he is welcomed at the end of his life, he will still probably be plagued with memories of him. Karna feels the needles again, but they're no longer repeatedly bruising his skin, they're pulling out, and it no longer burns his skin. The discomfort decreases, until it's no longer, and he is embraced by nothingness, no feelings, no sensations, no pain.  
  
  
  
    It's not hatred Karna feels for Arjuna, it's complicated.  
  
  
      
    And it'll continue to be complicated, as many times as they are summoned in the same era. With each summon, the knots around the heart become more heavy, soon to overwhelm it completely.

**Author's Note:**

> k update ig, my vacations over so im back to working on stuff. expect updates within the next to months. i still gotta get back into the swing of s/t.
> 
>  
> 
> https://idolatres.tumblr.com/


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